Most of us know that the sooner we do our taxes, the sooner we get any refund we're due. It's a great reason to get them out of the way soon—but there are other good reasons to do them as soon as possible too, like knowing how much you might owe, and having plenty of time to deal with any problems that come up.

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Over at US News Money, Trent (also of The Simple Dollar) explains that if you're due a refund, it's nice to have that in your pocket as soon as possible, but the flip side is just as good if you know you'll owe. You'll know how much you owe early, but since it doesn't do you any good to pay earlier than you have to, you can use the time between now and when your tax bill is due to plan for it, or stash that money away where it can work for you, but you forget about it:

Of course, it doesn't make sense to actually pay the taxes early. You want to wait until close to April 15 to pay so that the money you're paying sits in your accounts, earning interest or dividends. You want that money working for you.

By filing early, you can have the best of both worlds. You can figure out exactly how much you owe, but you don't actually have to submit your payment until April 15 – allowing you to figure out what you owe early while giving you plenty of time to get your accounts in order to pay that amount.

He also notes that doing your taxes early gives you plenty of time to deal with any issues that may come up between now and then, like filing errors, missing documents, or forgotten deductions. There's no reason to wait until the last minute, when everyone else is scrambling just to file, to try and get help with any problems that could have been easily fixed now, early on.